Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Bey Ano Rochitz twice

Musical Note By Cantor Sherwood GoffinWhy "Bey Ano Rochitz" twice?

I'm sure you've questioned why we, who are so careful generally not to repeat words in davening, repeat Bei Ano Rochitz twice while taking out the Torah. Other shuls have already dropped the repetition. As with everything I do, I have thought this out carefully.

This melody was written by Chazzan Zeidel Rovner (actually, Maragowsky),1856 -1943. He was a bearded, religious Chassidic Jew, born in Radomyshl, Kiev, who served in prestigious European pulpits, the last of which was in Rovno, the place that became his last name when he moved to the USA in 1914 because of Czarist persecutions. Here, he became a sought-after choir-director, writing many beautiful choral compositions that were very popular.

This melody, Bei Ano, comes from a very lengthy Brich Shmei that he wrote. (At the Belz School, in YU, we have the collection of all of his hand-written manuscripts.)

Whereas it is a problem to repeat words in the Amidah or the Blessings of the Sh’ma, it is NOT a problem, halachically, to repeat words while taking out or returning the Torah to the Ark. Since most of the melodies we sing at this point were written by Reform synagogue composers, this one written by a religious Jew is very meaningful to me. If Zeidel wrote it, I feel that in this one instance I wish to honor him by at least singing this melody as he wrote it, repeats and all. As a model of what a true Shaliach Tsibbur should be, Zeidel deserves to have his melody sung the way he sang it.

Yes, that is the "standard" tune. I've only heard one other tune, which I've posted here, and sheet music here for those musically inclined. Have you heard this tune before? Do you know where it comes from?